"After the fundamental intervention of the European parliamentarians and the strong pressure of the trade associations, the long-awaited corrective measures to the proposed EU regulation on packaging and packaging waste, which in its original formulation would have had serious repercussions on the country's main production chains and, in particular, on the thousands of companies that contribute with their work to the prestige of Italian products all over the world, have arrived", said the president of Copagri, Tommaso Battista, the day after the European Parliament approved the report on the trialogue. This was stated by Tommaso Battista, president of Copagri, the association of Italian agricultural producers, the day after the European Parliament approved the report giving the go-ahead for trialogues with the European Commission and the EU Council.
It is precisely for these reasons that the changes made to the text on food packaging are very important, such as the exclusion of certain production sectors, such as fruit and vegetables, floriculture and the wine sector, but above all the exemption from the reuse obligation for all those countries that achieve a recycling rate of 85%", continued the President, recalling that "Italy has been a global reference point in this field for years, so much so that it has already achieved higher recycling targets than the vast majority of other countries, with an overall packaging recycling rate of 73% in 2021, a percentage even higher than the EU target of 70% by 2030". 3% in 2021, a percentage even higher than the EU target of 70% by 2030".
"It certainly remains a priority to work to reverse the trend that sees each EU citizen generate around 190 kg of packaging waste every year, but we believe it is equally important to avert the risk of negatively affecting the sustainability of our agri-food production and wiping out billions of euros of public and private investment, with significant repercussions for consumers, not to mention employment and related industries," Battista notes.
In view of the start of the trialogues, i.e. the next step that awaits the proposal for an EU regulation and which will begin already in the coming months, we call on the Italian government and diplomacy to continue working to strengthen and reinforce political alliances with the other EU countries, in order to give strength and weight to the fundamental intervention of the European Parliament", concludes the President of Copagri.
